


Journeys to Acceptance

by QueenofMidnight



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan, The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Coming Out, F/F, Gen, LGBTQ, M/M, The LGBTQ Demigods, Wholesome, trans!leo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-11
Updated: 2020-11-11
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:46:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27503275
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/QueenofMidnight/pseuds/QueenofMidnight
Summary: Leo Valdez never fit in his body. For one he was a demigod. A literal half god. For another, he was born a girl and was certainly not one. But he couldn't figure out a way to tell his friends that.Nico di Angelo was born in a time that didn't accept him. He could've died for loving who he did. The change from the past to the present made that difficult.Piper McLean, daughter of Aphrodite. Expected to fit into the perfect child role. She was supposed to grow up and marry a man, have children, live a life. But she wasn't that person.Three demigods, all with their own struggles, who learned to let others know about them.~~~~~This is a short story about the demigods coming out to their friends and learning to be happy with themselves.
Relationships: Jason Grace & Piper McLean & Leo Valdez, Nico di Angelo & Original Character(s), Nico di Angelo/Will Solace, Piper Mclean/Shel
Comments: 3
Kudos: 93





	Journeys to Acceptance

**Author's Note:**

> Hello readers. Thanks for clicking on this fic. This is my first fic for any of the PJO fandoms, so I apologize if any of the characters are OOC. I hope you enjoy reading this!
> 
> P.S: I do not own any of the characters except Aisha and Shel's personality.

Leo’s life was hard enough. First, he had grown up on the streets. Then, he had learned he was a demigod. Now, he had to be on a quest with his two best friends, one of which didn’t remember him and both of which still thought of him as a girl. It was his fault. He has volunteered to do thi.

They were two days into the quest and in a sewer. He was tasked with lighting a fire. That was easy enough. It was just a fire. Fire was easy.

“Katie?” Piper called. “Are you done yet?”

Leo flinched at the name. His name, technically, but he had been calling himself Leo for the past three weeks. And he had known that he was, well, him not her for at least five.

“Yeah just a few more seconds.” The spark ignited in his palm and for a second it was much larger then it should’ve been. He quickly made it small and lit the small pile of trash they had found. Then he turned back to his friends.

It was quiet for a few moments yet in those moments Leo’s mind made a decision. It was something that he had been struggling with for weeks.

“So,” He began. Piper and Jason gave him strange looks. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you guys.”

“What is it?” Jason leaned forward.

He opened his mouth but no words came out.

Piper frowned. “You good Kate?”

“Don’t call me that.” The words had come without him meaning them to. “Please.”

Piper and Jason exchanged looks. “Are you okay?” Jason asked. 

He considered how to phrase the next part. _‘Yeah I’m fine, totally not wrestling with a life changing decision about these next few words.’_

“What?” Piper cried. “What life changing decision?”

So he had said that out loud. Shit. “I’m uh…”

“You know you can tell us anything right?” Jason asked.

 _Not really,_ he thought. “It’s just…” Again he struggled with the words. Finally, the ADHD part of his brain won. “I’m not a girl,” He blurted then immediately regretted it.

“Wait what?” Jason asked. Piper studied him curiously.

He rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah...surprise.”

“So that makes you what?”

“A dude?”

Then Piper started laughing. For a good second he thought she thought he was joking. Then, she stood up and hugged him. When she pulled away she was grinning.

“I knew it.” She said triumphantly.

“You did?” Jason and Leo exclaimed.

“Well there was the fact that he has short hair, has never worn a single piece of women's clothing and then that he flinched every time one of us called him “Katie” or “she”” Her eyes turned back to Leo. “So do you have ideas for a name?”

He nodded, relieved. “I like Leo.”

Jason studied him. “It fits.”

Of course, that wasn’t the end of it for Leo. There was still the fact that everyone at camp knew him as Katie. But he came out eventually and Mr. D even took a liking to him after Leo told him.

He was still referred to as a girl to monsters and Gaia, but to everyone else he was Leo, the son of Hephestus.

And he was fine with where he was

~~~~~

Nico Di Angelo. He knew what the whispers said about him. The son of Hades no one really wanted at camp. No one knew where he came from. Just who his father was.

For him, growing up was hard. He grew up in the 1930s and 40s, where he had seen a man killed for holding another man's hand. His mother warned him about being gay. She said it wasn’t something you were in public. So that’s what he grew up believing

Then he was shoved into the Lotus Hotel. Time passed so fast that he didn’t really know what to think of it. He remembered life before the casino, but not why he was there. Neither did Bianca.

Finally, being shoved into a world of demigods was too much. He snapped and left.

No one told Nico that being gay wasn’t illegal any more. No one told him that the people he liked couldn’t be a cause for his death anymore.

Finally, he had been forced to come out to Jason. It wasn’t his choice and he had been sure Jason would get mad, fight him instead of Cupid. But nothing happened. Jason just looked awkward. Nico couldn’t blame him. He knew that it was hard enough trying to be friends with a son of Hades. 

After the war, still only three people knew. Jason, Percy and Annabeth. They all supported him but they were still only three people. And that landed him in his current situation: being persuaded by his sorta friend to ask out a girl.

“I’m just saying,” Aisha said, “Carla definitely has a crush on you.”

“And how would you know?” Nico shot back.

“She told me.”

“She told you? The infamous daughter of Aphrodite?”

Aisha hummed. “Yes. She’s my friend, why wouldn’t she?”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Sure. But I’m not interested in her.”

“Then who do you have a crush on?”

“What makes you think I have a crush on anyone?”

“Your eyes.” Nico gave her a strange look. “Anyone who pays attention to your eyes can notice that they always seem to be drifting off somewhere. Not the ‘I’m remembering hell’ drifting off, that's different.”

Nico stared at her. “I didn’t think anyone paid that much attention to me.”

Aisha laughed. “It’s a little hard not to when your mother’s the goddess of love. So who is it?”

“I’m not saying.”

“Come on please!”

“Nope.”

“Nicooooo.”

“No.”

They rounded a corner and he shadow traveled away. Aisha threw her hands up and muttered “Why do I bother.”

Nico stumbled as he landed in the Hades cabin. It was quiet and dark, as always, since he was never bothered to open the curtains. 

He collapsed on the bed. Shadow traveling so suddenly was never something that was good for him and it left him with a headache. But he had to get out of there before Aisha asked too many questions

There was a knock on the door some time later and it creaked open. Light spilled through the crack and Aisha walked in.

She looked around the room before spotting him and walking over.

“I came to apologize if I pushed too far.” Straight to the point. He liked that about her. She didn’t bother to sugarcoat it. “You didn’t want to talk about it and I shouldn’t have pushed. So sorry.”

He took a few deep breaths. “It’s okay.”

“Never thought I would hear those words from you di Angelo.”

“Don’t count on it happening again.” He glared at her playfully then let his face relax. 

The daughter of Aphrodite smiled. “Well I have to go. Chiron wants me to help him with his mail.” She rolled her eyes. “See you at dinner.”

As she turned to leave Nico blurted out, “Will Solace.”

Aisha turned back giving him a look that said _what are you talking about?_

“I have a crush on Will Solace.” His heart was racing. He knew that there was a good chance that she would scoff and slam the door. That would’ve been the normal thing to do in his time. But Aisha just smiled.

“I think he also likes you..” She said thoughtfully, making Nico go red. “Anyway, I got to go. Bye!”

“Wait what?” Nico called as she shut the door, laughter trickling through.

After the immediate shock, he smiled. That went well.

~~~~~

Piper’s whole life had been filled with expectations. She was supposed to be the perfect daughter, student, girlfriend/friend. It wasn’t realistic. Some of those expectations had been dropped when Jane was fired but there were others. And the ones that came from her mother were the worst.

To Aphrodite, love was a game. Piper was supposed to fall in love with some handsome guy and live out her life. Instead, Piper’s love life had been a mess.

First her boyfriend turned out to be a trick of the mist and he hadn’t even met her when she thought he did. Then they did end up dating and that ended badly. Not only had they broken up but Jason had died.

The pit in her stomach was there for weeks. Jason’s death left her feeling hollow and empty, like a part of her was missing. He wasn’t just a good boyfriend, but he was a good friend too.

And then there was the other stuff. The stuff that was revolving around Piper’s mortal bestfriend Shel.

It had started out as just some random thoughts. _I wonder what it’d be like to kiss her_ and _her eyes are beautiful like I could drown in them forever_. She pushed those down pretty easily. But then they grew and grew.

“Do you think if a meteor came it right now it could destroy that mountain?” Shel pointed to a mountain off in the distance. They were sitting outside of Piper’s house, looking out.

“Excuse me?” The question took her by surprise.

“I said what I said.”

Piper laughed. It was one of the few times she did so nowadays. The guilt of Jason’s death still weighed heavily on her, but Shel helped with that.

“I think that it would make a cool cave.”

“Well then maybe the cave would be unstable and collapse.”

“What do you have against that mountain?”

“Nothing. I just like watching things get destroyed.”

They sat in silence for a few more moments. Piper watched the stars. She thought back to all the old stories her father had told her about the stars and smiled. Her eyes even caught on one Annabeth had told her about. The Huntress.

But with the thoughts of the Huntress came thoughts of the gods. She could imagine her mother’s disappointed look if she found out what Piper was feeling towards the girl sitting next to her.

Finally the silence was broken by Shel’s phone going off. Shel sighed and pulled it out then grimaced at the message.

“My dad wants me home,” She groaned.

“When?”

“Now.”

“Are you going to go?”

“I think I’m gonna stay for a few more minutes, ya know, make him mad.”

Piper laughed. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

“Good? Probably not. Idea? Yes.” Shel smirked. “Besides, he knows he can’t control me. I don’t think he cares that much. Not like he’s my mother.” She hopped off the table. “Even if I had a mother, I don’t think she could manage me.”

“If you had a mother, I think she would be like you,” Piper suggested. “I just don’t see you getting your personality from your father.”

“Unless my father had a teenage rebellious phase where he fell for his best friend-” Her eyes widened at what she had just said. “Fuck.”

Piper starred. “What?”

Shel coughed. “Uhm...yeah...I totally understand if you don’t wanna hang out with me any more…”

Piper was still trying to wrap her mind around the fact that Shel liked her back. A few seconds passed and she said, “Why would I?”

“I don’t know. You’re straight. I have a crush on you. Why wouldn’t you?” Shel said that like it was obvious.

“Well, for one, I may or may not be straight. For another, I kinda have a crush on you.” Piper slide off the desk as the words flowed out of her mouth.

Shel raised an eyebrow. “Kinda?”

Piper rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

They stood there for a few seconds in silence. Shel was studying her face and Piper was trying to decipher what she was thinking.

“So, do you wanna do this formally?”

“Have you done anything formally in your life?”

Shel laughed. “True. Anyway, Piper, wanna go on a date with me?”

“Yes!” Piper laughed. “Yes, of course.”

Sadly, the moment was ruined by Shel’s father calling and demanding she come home. But right before she left, Shel winked and said “Text me”.

Piper went inside smiling more than she had since Jason’s death. When her dad asked about it she said “I just had a good day.”


End file.
